Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Mission to Pluto by Mary Kay Carson - ADVISABLE


Carson, Mary Kay Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt, with photographs by Tom Uhlman. 74 pgs. NON FICTION. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. $18.99. Content: G.  

In July, 2015 a small spacecraft which left Earth 9 ½ years before finally arriving at it’s destination: Pluto!  Its mission was to take pictures, scan the surface and send information back to earth, before continuing on to visit the Kuiper Belt in 2019. 

 From the discovery of the planet in 1930 to the building of the New Horizons spacecraft and its launch in 2006, and then the pictures sent in 2015 (which are still arriving - it’s a slow transmission from over 3 billion miles away) this is a fascinating read that gives a non scientist a great perspective on this amazing space story.  Fully illustrated with captioned photographs, this “scientists in the field” book also contains a glossary, bibliography and credit for source material.

MS, HS - ADVISABLE  Lisa Librarian

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